Our house martin nest successfully produced a second brood at the beginning of September. There is little sign of the visiting summer migrants around the village now. I did recently hear a chiffchaff singing though.

There is little bird song to be heard in autumn with the notable exception of the robin. Robins are very territorial and their song through the autumn is for the purpose of defending their individual territories. After Christmas they will start to pair up again and so the male’s song at this time is to advertise the fact that they are there and available to female birds. Pairs are then formed, sharing a territory but don’t generally start to breed until early spring. The only time robins don’t sing is when they are moulting around July.